Disarrrrsters

Knitting on the Diatom Shawl continues apace - I am on row 168 of 182 now, so the end is in sight. It was, of course, at this point that I discovered the ball of contrast colour 4 is missing from the bag. Of course it is. I checked the photograph from my stash and it was definitely in there at some point. Of course it was. I had a half-hearted rummage through my downstairs craft box, where the rest of the bag was, but it didn't turn anything up, so today, with a big sigh and an anti-histamine, I prepared to turn out the chest of yarn where the bag had been stored. This wasn't too depressing, because it also holds the yarn for my intended next project, so two birds with one stone, and everything.

Except, it's not there. Of course it's not. That would be too easy. It is very definitely Missing. I will have a look behind the sofa and a proper look in the downstairs box but, if nothing, I am going to have to order a new ball on Tuesday, or do extra rows in CC2, 3 and 5, which I don't want to do. Thankfully it is still in production, and in stock at Great British Yarns.

This is disastrous enough but falls really into the category of minor annoyance compared to the second disaster. Rummaging for something last month, I discovered a little of the yarn I had bought at Wonderwool last year had been lightly mothed. I was not too concerned - it was only a little, and it was in the basket of yarn that lived downstairs until we had the floors done, and I've had moths nomming the downstairs stuff before, so - meh.

However, today I pulled out all the yarn from the basket as I rummaged for the missing Palette and the scale is much greater than I realised. There's a second batch of yarn, that I have already wound, that has one very mothed cake in it (woe, woe is me) and, worst, at the bottom of the basket is the cardigan/wrap waistcoat I began knitting in 2013 and it has been mothed beyond all rescue.

I can't believe I have to get rid of it and I never even finished it! This pattern was also a gift from a knitting group friend who died a few years ago, which makes it doubly sad. I might felt it and use it as a blanket for the rabbits. Darn moths.

And possibly the worst is, that I've never had a problem with eating moths upstairs - only downstairs. But now I realise I might have inadvertently introduced them into my stash room by storing the infested basket in there. The vast majority of my yarn is already stored in airtight plastic anyway, luckily, but I can see that this week now includes to job of bagging up anything not already bagged. That must make me pretty much the only person hoping for a rainy day this week.

Wonderwool 2019

April has been a luscious month full of all sorts of treats. I started with a weekend of geeking out over history topics in London; then popped off to Alabama for a few days where I was thoroughly spoilt by the tourist board and their able helpers; and it's been rounded off with the annual visit to Wonderwool.

I've been looking back through previous years and realised I've been considerably less restrained than I have been for a while. I first thought I'd buy nothing. Then I aimed for some yellow to go with last year's blue, for a Volt jumper (a pattern I bought last year). Then I added something for a shawl for my friend Naomi to the list. Then the buttons for Mother Hand's cardigan. Then I burned the list and just went for it.

So..
Top row - two skeins of yellow from WYS, to go with the blue, for the Volt. The colours are spot on but the brighter yellow isn't quite the texture I wanted. Still, it was the best I could find.
Two projects bags from Siobhans Crafts. The woven one was made by Siobhan's friend using Siobhan-dyed yarn. It is the softest, squidgiest thing I found all day. I might have been tempted by a wrap if they're had one in these colours.
Three skeins of Coopknits DK and a pattern for some sekrit socks.
Second row - five mini skeins of Mr B's yarn from Birdstreet. They're local Bristol sellers. They had some lovely things. I'm going to match these with the red fivemoons, middle of the row, to make some kind of variegated shawl.
One the right, a skein of Triskelion Heulwen 4-ply from the sale bin. Just because. It's a nice neutral and so soft.
Third row - five skeins of Triskelion Hama Sport, also from the sale bin. I dithered for a long time over these, particularly because they had several colours and I couldn't choose. I found a pattern that will work, though, so it came home with me.
In the middle, another skein of Riverknits Starry Night BFL 4-ply - now I have three and can do a garment.
On the right, another wholly unnecessary purchase- 4 skeins of Giddy Aunt DK - but LOOK AT THAT BLUE. It almost glows.
Bottom row - Buttons for Mother Hand's cardigan. A gradient set from Riverknits - the display and the colours got me. And finally, a shawl kit for Naomi. She is a fan of the bees. They had a sample knitted up and it was the first thing I bought. The sample was sparkly but the kit wasn't she was very good and swapped it out for me when I asked. It was from Unbelieva-wool.

I'm closeish to finishing Mother Z's birthday shawl and then I'm a bit spoilt for choice. I think Volt first, then the sekrit socks (which should be quick) and then Naomi's shawl, though I really need to have cast that on before May half term, so perhaps I should begin with that.

We stayed in a new bunkhouse this year, near Tirabad, which had epic views.

There was a brutal storm on Friday night and it rained most of the day on Saturday. I was freezing. I really must remember to pack leggings next year.

Very enjoyable! Now, must knit more...

Wonderwool 2018

At the risk of sounding very old, this year is absolutely flying by. I shouldn't be surprised; I have been very busy, which is scientifically proven to make time pass more quickly, but....still! Wonderwool was already over a month ago! Phew.

We stayed in a different place this time, since our usual bunkhouse had been snapped up. It was an outward bound centre aimed at schools so it was slightly less comfortable but in slightly more spectacular surroundings, being on the edge of Brecon forest, and with the added benefit of being on the Bristol side of Builth.

A picturesque nearby tree. It's the sort of place that would have been good for a walk is I was disposed to such things. There was a single track road in and out, populated by Houdini sheep and a small herd of goats fronted by an angry ram. There were many sofas and a good wood burner. I'm already looking forward to going back.

I was quite restrained on the yarn front. I was going to attempt to not buy anything, but only in a half-hearted way. Here are the goodies:

• Five skeins of Triskelion Hama DK, a BFL/silk/cashmere blend, in Navigator. It was on their sale rack. Sally saw me coming, as usual. 
• Two skeins of Riverknits BFL 4-ply in Starry Night. THE COLOUR! It looked so good knitted up in a little shawlette with twinkly beads. 
• More Riverknits - a last minute impulse buy of a rainbow gradient kit. I don't think I will ever find anything good enough to knit with it. There are 960m, though. It's basically a jumper. 
• Some buttons from Brimstone. Of course. 

I also bought a couple of patterns - a book of small bird patterns from Sue Strafford (still need to knit up the giant blue tit from the kit I bought x years ago) and the sweater pattern for this -

I was thinking the Hama would be a good base for this but heaven knows what I'd pair it with. 

There was also a needle felting workshop with Jenny Barnett again. April and I went to make woodland creature badges. I didn't stab myself, which I consider to be a win. 

And my Wonderwoman jumper garnered a few compliments, which are always nice to hear. And the weather was lovely!

Not so good for everybody in attendance, though....

'HELP ME! I AM SINKING!'

Wonderwool 2017

After spending a chunk of my Christmas holiday reorganising and properly recording my stash, I was not in the mood for buying enormous quantities of yarn at Wonderwool this year, especially since I had only knitted up three of the things I bought last year. I had a little list: some black or dark grey 4-ply for a stripey jumper; something for the v-neck I am test knitting; and something from Fivemoons, because I was currently knitting the last of my Fivemoons stash.

Pleasingly, I managed to stick to my little list and not a great deal more. Here's what I got:

Five skeins of Triskelion , which is a luscious blend of alpaca, silk and cashmere goat. It is nearly all used up already, because I bought it for the v-neck pattern (tick)

Fivemoons - three skeins of charcoal grey 4-ply (tick)...

...four skeins of variegated purple DK (tick). Both of these were in the sale bin, hurrah! Bargains galore.

There were a few other bits:

I mean, obviously. This is by Hand-dyed by Kate for Sally. I might have added that last bit on but, come on.

I got these mini skeins (top ones pinker than they look; bottom ones earmarked for Mother Hand) to make some shawls, alongside this:

More luscious Triskelion. I know the lady who works the stall quite well and I'm sure she must rub her hands together gleefully whenever she sees me coming.

This was entirely unnecessary but just too pretty to leave behind. It was by Pook, which I initially misheard as Puke - totally inappropriate for the colourways but it did stick. They very cleverly had lots of samples knitted up and this was gorgeous as a shawl.

I got this our of Jenny's destash. I have such plans for it! Great big bundle of summer top promise.

No buttons. None! And I came home with money in my little bag. Though, the list does seem long now I have written it all down....maybe it's because they're mostly minis, that it feels like less.

Operation Stash Organise, Christmas 2016

aka "Operation Make The Spare Room Presentable".

The poor old spare room is crammed with:

• All spare bedding - blankets, pillows, sleeping bags etc - plus big pieces of foam that I use for blocking.
• Leftover boxes of stuff from when we redid the kitchen. Eight years ago.
• Remaindered craft supplies from when I used to do other crafts.
• Clothes I don't wear anymore but don't want to get rid of.
• Knick knacks I have bought on holiday and don't have a place for (the spare room is where I unpack).
• Board games. 
• All knitting books and magazines.
• And, of course, yarn.

For guests, I think it must be quite a scary place to sleep. There's a towering shelf against the bed and precariously-stacked hat boxes of yarn, and nowhere really to put anything down. 

I tidied it up a bit ready for Mother Hand's visit; I had, earlier this year, been through the boxes of stuff she had been secreting in her loft since I moved out at the age of 17, of whose existence I was unaware. That cleared out a lot of stuff, but there were a few leftover bits I couldn't bear to part with so I had to find places for those as well. A lot of stuff went back into the manky plastic chest of drawers I had almost entirely cleared out.

As an aside here, the cat helped a bit in my endeavour by spotting the one photograph in amongst the stuff on the bed that I had put aside to keep, and vomiting right into the middle of it. Alas, that picture of me with my Guide Captain on the night I was awarded my Baden Powell is consigned to distant memory. 

So anyway, here was the stack of stuff after it had been tidied (I know):

This is just clothes and yarn, really. It took me two days, done a little at a time, but here is the resulting stack:

For a true comparison, I should put back the boxes of clothes but I am hoping to get rid of most of that, too, so I have left them down for now.

The great news is that I have managed to completely empty the enormous clear plastic box of yarn, plus the several bagsful that were balanced precariously on top of the mountain. As I resolved in 2016, all my yarn now fits into the hidey hole (which is only half as big as it looks, on account of sitting on the slant of the stairs) and the hat boxes. Also, one of those hatboxes just holds leftover yarn from projects I have previously knitted and delinquent WIPs, so that's not too bad. It basically all fits.

Well, ALMOST. Of course, only almost. I have not put away the Moonlight gradient kit I bought at last Wonderwool; I bagged up two carrier bags for swaps and donating; the enormous stash of Rowan Herring Tweed is still being wound by my heroic in laws; and I haven't counted any of the yarn downstairs. While I'd like to think this isn't a massive amount, I know that I have at least a bagful stuffed behind my chair that I'm trying to ignore.

But, anyway, progress. I was very strict with myself and made sure everything put away here was listed on Ravelry. Even the Cascade. This has had the depressing impact of increasing my stash by 6500m but I keep reminding myself that it was already there, I was just pretending it wasn't.

So. The challenge is going to be to keep it like this. For a while, I think my knitting choices are going to need to be informed by what is taking up the most space, rather than what I want to knit the most.

Full, brutal disclosure: my stash stands, according to Ravelry, at:
173 items (29 of which are buttons)
102,895m of yarn (ouch)

Realistically, at the rate I knit, this little lot would keep me going for about 15 years. I'd be quite bored by the end, but still. I might have reached capacity.
To try to keep myself accountable, I will update my stash at some point with the rest of the yarn I own. By the end of the year I would like to have it back into 5 figures. 

Stash-diving: a shameful confession

This evening I had cause to rummage through my stash at length. I was in search of some Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino, now wound ready for a hat for Sib. This wasn't listed on my index cards, so I doggedly searched through box after box of yarn, assuming I had forgotten to list it in the last reorganisation.

It wasn't until I reached the last box that I realised its omission was probably due to the fact it was stored in the secret compartment under the boxes of yarn. This holds most of my delinquent WIPs, the Rowan Damask I stockpiled upon its discontinuation and a number of other yarn purchases I have moreorless forgotten about. I rummaged deep.

In the process of this rummaging, my hand, delved deep into the depths of the compartment, hit upon a tangle. It was a big'un. I pulled....it was...

Sorry about the thumb blur. I think my hands were shaking.

Because there were TWO of them.

Long-time readers of the blog may recall my triumphant post of September last year, in which I declared that the Yorkshire Tweed was all wound, and in which I stipulated a stash of roughly 1500m. At the time I remember feeling a bit sad as the realisation that this had not been the bargain I thought it was, having spent £30 on the original purchase. It's looking a bit more bargainous now, I must admit.

I haven't told Mr Z yet. I'm not sure our marriage is strong enough to withstand the news.

In other news, I must make sure this Christmas's reorganisation and cataloguing of stash includes absolutely every last ball.

Weekend WIP

I forgot how addictive knitting this top is.

It's murder on my hands. I think the problem is that I hold my working yarn lightly between the curled ring and little finger of my right hand, and with it being such skinny yarn I have to grip instead of just letting it hang out. This makes the attached knuckles sore. Being a complete hypochondriac, I started to become concerned about possible carpal tunnel so I reverted after knitting group yesterday and put another couple of hexagons to bed (16 down, 111 to go).

However, I did manage to get the shoulder stitches onto holders on Friday and knit up to the third stripe yesterday. The middle blue I picked is transferring quite a lot of colour onto my hand anyway and I had no desire to go back to work with the right-hand fingernails of one long dead, so it was just as well.

Bonus pictures: in an effort to achieve my year's goal of knitting up all the individual skeins of Lion & Lamb I had sitting in stash, I wound them all into cakes.

At the top, That's How We Roll; middle left is Sookie's Last Stand, middle right is Royal Baby: Snips and Snails; bottom left is Royal Baby: Sugar and Spice and bottom middle is He Who Must Not Be Named. Bottom right is the last skein of Georgetown I bought for the shawl I knitted in 2009, my only other single skein in this yarn.

The purples in particular blend together very nicely:

I was surprised by how much nicer some of the colours were once they were out of the skein. I keep thinking they're too nice for a blanket but that is a silly thing to think: I don't know what else 200m of yarn could easily become and it's too nice to stay sitting in stash, at any rate.

If I am strict with myself and complete two hexagons a week, I should have finished with this little lot by Christmas.

Weekend stash acquisition

I have been knitting this weekend, but just pinwheels, as before, so I won't update you. I have now completed eight, thus cutting 10 years off my projected finishing time from last week.

We went to John Arbon's mill open day this weekend. I intended to possibly buy some black 4-ply for a jumper but then wasn't sure about the twist compared to the yarn I wanted to match it with. So, instead, I raided the seconds bin and came away with this little lot -

A couple of months ago I came across a Wonder Woman jumper knitted by somebody on Ravelry and I was so taken with it I have decided to attempt to knit my own. The seconds bin provided almost everything I needed; I picked up one skein of natural that was full price but the rest was less than half what the usual cost is. Very pleased with my little haul. I will add it to the every-growing list of planned projects.

Wonderwool 2016

Our fourth year in the bunkhouse and my sixth visit to Wonderwool - I can't believe it has been that many. We had a delightful weekend as usual, although I did at times feel a bit overwhelmed by the noise and the people, especially on the Saturday. It felt really very busy this year.

Sunday was very nice though and afforded time and space for some wandering at will, so I got a good look round the stalls. Not much point though, because I had a mental list of what I wanted and I pretty much stuck to it. And here it is:

In the front row:

• Five skeins of a new Triskelion blend that doesn't yet have a name - it's a BFL DK in colour Nicor. I never buy green but Jenny pointed it out to me and then I had to have it. He doesn't sell the Idris I bought last year anymore and I wasn't convinced of the new DK base, so it was a treat to come across this new yarn on the table. 
• Four skeins of a delightful blue blend from Owl About Yarn. It's about 900m which I was worried would not be enough for a garment, but a quick scan of my projects revealed that this jumper used about that much and it is one of my favourites. 
• Five skeins of Midwinter linen, the same as last year, but in blues for a gradient summer top. I have got so much wear out of the sunrise top that this was a no-brainer. I went for an extra skein this time so that I can be a bit more generous with my sleeves.
• Five skeins of Diana Aran from Fivemoons. The lilac was marked down by a ridiculous degree and I bought the pink to match. Along with the two skeins I bought last September, that should be enough for an incredibly warm stripey jumper. 

In the back row:

• Either side, gradient sets from Moonlight. On the left is the one I bought and knitted last year. I have some left over from that and want to make a striped jumper, but I was concerned the leftovers wouldn't be enough for a reasonable stripe so I bought this, her last kit, at the end of Sunday. I regret nothing. On the right is a gradient set with a grey skein for another scarf. This was my first purchase. 
• In the middle, a kit to knit a large blue tit (so cute) and a Zauerball on top because I saw a shawl knitted in it and wanted it. Not until later did I realise this is roughly the same colours as that right-hand gradient kit. Oh well. 

There were buttons, too - some that make me think of Starry Night, some that are turquoise chips set in pitch, and some that are the palest purple dichroic glass. There are also two dyed mother-of-pearl buttons, not pictures, which will shortly be gracing my new jumper that is nearing completion.

I'm very pleased with my purchases and currently casting around for a suitable top-down raglan pattern for the linen. I might give in and knit the same one as before; it is a great shape and was just about interesting enough to keep me plugging away at it. 

Birthday stash

Sib did extremely well with my birthday present this year.

He's got this Peruvian girlfriend now, who he met on his travels towards the end of last year. He went back over to visit her in August and, upon his return, said we needed to meet up so he could give me my birthday present. The Family Hand are not very good at presents (except Mother Hand who is too good) but it's something we all accept with grace, so I was surprised.

We finally met up on Saturday and he came swinging a GAP bag. I thought he'd been shopping, but no.

YARN!! What a great gift! And he got it so right, for a non-knitter. It's not some weird blend that feels like barbed wire. It's not some eyelash or novelty or squeaky acrylic that looked pretty in the shop but that I don't want to knit with. It's not one or two balls that I'll never find a use for. It is TWENTY balls (count 'em) of Peruvian baby alpaca DK. It's enough for two garments if I am frugal, or one really lush chunky stripey cardigan if I am not. It's beautifully soft, as you might expect.

"It was quite expensive, by Peruvian standards," he mused. Yes, welcome to the world of the knitter, who understands that quality usually costs, no matter what you're buying.

The Saga of the Yorkshire Tweed

It is finally all wound, into greater or lesser sized bundles. It has taken Mr Z all week to finish it, making this a two-week endeavour in total. He's feeling quite proud of itself; I am a bit daunted by how many small pieces there are. I figure, I will start knitting with the biggest cakes and balls and then if I get a sweater out of it I won't need to worry about combining and spit splicing the leftovers. They will just go in the bin.

With an estimated 1500m, I think I might tackle a cabled v-neck. This is a really lovely, multi-tonal grey but something about it really reminds me of my school uniform jumper. A new take on that old favourite might suit this quite well.

I'll add it to the neverending list.

Bristol Wool Fair

I went along to this yesterday. I didn't need any more yarn, but I wanted to support it because it was local and there were going to be Vikings there, which I wanted to see.

Well, of course more yarn happened. I bought this -

Mmmm, Fivemoons! The darker grey is 100% BFL aran weight, from the sale bin. The other two are a silk/wool blend and are going to create a stripey yoke for a top-down raglan I have in mind.

This peeped out of a sale bin at me and even though the yarn is pretty scratchy I just love the colours in it, so I thought I would put up with it and make a hat or something.

On my way out, the Knitting Swede reeled me in. 1400m of 4-ply in Burlesque. I just couldn't resist the colour.

It was a great event - I got to see the vikings...

I also had a good look round the farm shop and stocked the freezer. This farm used to supply all the meat to my local butcher, who long-time readers might recall suffered a fiery fate (the shop, not the man) a few years ago. It was a relief to find a familiar-looking butcher counter.

A great event, all things considered. I hope it comes back next year.

Time well spent? Or time, well, spent.

I have this big bundle of yarn in my stash. I'm pretty sure it's Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK.

I rummaged out of a box at Fibrefest in 2009. The chap on the stall seemed a bit meh about it and said it had been for the next day but he would sell it to me for £30. Emma and April bought similar bundles, but they paid theirs forward at some point afterwards.

Me being me, this got listed in my stash, Mr Z took one pass at untangling it and then it was put away and not thought about. However, since Rowan discontinued the colourway and then the yarn (I think it was in that order), every so often somebody leaves a comment on my stash or contacts me, as they did last night. So, this morning I thought I would haul it out and have a looking at what I was actually dealing with.

Firstly, my estimate of 1500g was extremely generous - the scale said 685g.
Secondly....just, ugh. Not only are there dozens of ends, but the yarn is so lightly twisted it comes apart with only the smallest provocation. Mr Z and I whiled away some hours today (him considerably more than me, admittedly) trying to get it into something workable.

The good thing about it is that it felts with relative ease so I have spit spliced in several of those smaller pieces now and I have three good-sized cakes out of my portion, which was less than half. And having done all the spit splicing and seeing what poor condition this yarn is in, I have absolutely no guilt about not selling it on to anybody who has shown an interest in it. It would definitely be a curse rather than a blessing.

Will I knit something with it? Hopefully. It seems a rotten waste otherwise.

Stash Enrichment: Jimmy Beans

Once again, I managed to build in a trip to Jimmy Beans during our recent holiday in the States. I had planned to go on my birthday but it seemed I preferred to spend that day at the beach, attempting paddle boarding and getting bumped on the head.

So, we went the day after my birthday. We began with pancakes at Coffee &... in Truckee, as is tradition; then we drove an 80 minute round trip back to the campsite to pick up my purse which I had stupidly left in the bear box. Then we drove to Reno, to Mr Z's impossible golf course from last time. It was full of hares and reeds and weeds. A quick Google revealed that it had closed in June. Oh. Luckily there was another nearby, so after I had dropped him there, bought some sportswear at a nearby shop (I was looking for a new ski jacket but, unsurprisingly, there were none available in August) and eaten lunch at Whole Foods, I toddled off to the promised land.

It had changed a little since my last trip. Now there is just a little yellow square of warehouse available for rummaging; but when I asked in the shop I was escorted to the Lorna's Laces aisle and, from there, pretty much allowed to get on with my rummaging. Amazingly, the SA, Teri, remember me from my first visit way back in 2009 - how cool is that!

I tried very hard to be restrained. I did pick up another jumper's worth of Madelintosh, in Betty Draper's Blues, but I made myself put it back, mainly because I have a ridiculously busy 6 months ahead of me (the chances of me making 127 posts this year are exceptionally slim) and a lot of yarn I want to knit up immediately.

So, I ended up with two jumpers' worth of 4-ply yarn, both in blue:
 

At the top, Madelinetosh Dandelion in Blue Nile...that colour! Mwaahahhhhhh! And it has 10% linen in it. It's like, the perfect yarn.
At the bottom, La Jolla 4-ply by Baah! I had not come across this brand before. The colour is London Blue. Perfect.

Then I bought three skeins of Lorna's Laces Honor in Bold Red. It's a solid but for some reason it doesn't look that way in this picture. I have three skeins of this is Red State from my last visit, plus one of Stitch Red from my winnings; I had it in mind to tackle a Stripes Gone Crazy but then discovered this is a 4-ply cardigan. Doh. I see some people have knitted it in DK but I'm not sure if I can face the maths. I have been browsing patterns and think the Maxfield Cardigan might work, possibly...not sure. The red of Red State might blend too well with the background Bold Red. Hmm. I don't know. I need to rummage around with that some more.

Multicoloured reflective yarn! I couldn't resist, and I couldn't choose between the two colours, so I bought both. I still have about three skeins of this sitting around waiting to be turned into hats. I need to save them for an evening when I want to finish something quickly.

Finally, I bought a skein of Madelinetosh DK in Lapis. This is to blend with the remaining skein from my v-neck jumper, to make a Zephyr Cove shawl, as suggested by the imaginative Kat at Knatterers.

I also got a new project bag, of course. Well, you'll see why....

Wonderwool 2015

Shocked to discover I haven't yet written about Wonderwool! A massive oversight on my part. We went back to the same bunkhouse (of course) and I slept in the same bed (third year running) and we took pictures of everybody's stash at the end of Saturday (standard)...

This year we also visited the farmer's lambs and helped with feeding. Well, April helped with feeding. I watched and took pictures, because I was wearing a handknit jumper and I didn't want to get milk and/or lamb on it. You can take the girl out of the city, etc.

Of course, there was yarn. I was a bit more restrained this year and actually came home with money in my little bag of £2 coins that I had been collecting all year. I think this was partly to do with my dismay at tipping out last year's yarn from the Wonderwool bag to take to this year's Wonderwool and realising how much of it there was left, and partly to do with my carefully-planned holiday enabling a trip to Jimmy Beans roughly on my birthday this summer. As you may have picked up on, I don't have two minutes to rub together very often these days so heaven knows when it's all going to get knitted up.

Buying less meant a focus on quality over quantity though, so I got some truly luscious stuff.

• Top row - all buttons from Brimstone. I'm not sure about the little round turquoise ones: they are mounted in little metal crowns that just scream, "I'm going to snag your knitting something chronic." But, I really liked them a lot. 
• Second row - some light silk and 500g aran cashmere, both from the Knitwitches sales bin. What will I do next year when she is not there? I have no idea why I bought the silk but it's so lustrous and appealing in the flesh. I am hoping the Cashmere will become that Telluride pullover I've been lusting after for months. Then, 600g Idris DK and a skein of softest, cloudiest alpaca, both from Triskelion. I got to this stall and found an old friend working on it, who was easily able to talk me into the single skein. It is so soft I just want to use it for a pillow.
• Bottom row - Wingspan Kit from Moonlight yarns (local company woohoo!), 500g five moons Diana DK, 4 skeins of heavy laceweight linen from Midwinter yarns (as mentioned in this week's WIP post) and some dichroic glass buttons from Crafts From The Dungeon. I bought some toggles from the same company at Fibrefest years ago and was overjoyed to find these. I tried to chat to the seller about it but she continued her conversation with another customer throughout the entire process of serving me, which I thought was really rude. 

There was also this buckle from Brimstone, which I'm going to put on a hat, Wonderwoman style -

Difficult to pick a favourite, but that five moons was something I forced myself to leave behind on Saturday and then panicked about being sold before I got back on Sunday, so it is probably that. Bit of a departure in terms of my usual colourway but I probably have enough blue in my stash (whisper it quietly). 

It was another joyful and restful weekend away, although I did sit up suddenly in the middle of the night on Saturday and thump my head on the upper bunk. Not ideal. 

We're already planning next year. Better get off the internet and back to the knitting or next year's haul will be even smaller.